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I live, work, and pay my taxes in the UK.

Sadly, my mother recently died. I am about to inherit some of her assets, which are all located in Italy, where she lived. I'll be inheriting a 25% share of the house where my father currently lives and will keep on living for the foreseeable future. I'll also inherit some of her funds deposited in current and savings accounts. I already own a house here in the UK, which I purchased as first-time buyer.

I'll not be managing the succession first-hand, because I have my schedule rather full at the moment and the pandemic makes travel (and pretty much everything) more difficult. My father is taking care of everything with the assistance of a "notary", some kind of Italian public officer which is generally tasked, among a myriad other things, with drafting the relevant legal documents whenever a succession takes place.

I have spoken to this person once, and he doesn't seem to be well-versed in tax issues, let alone those of the international kind.

While I am considering to seek professional tax advice, I would like to pick your brain first to gauge how much unnecessary pain am I to expect from all this, and whether professional advice is absolutely mandatory in my situation due to its intricate nature.

Are there any tax liabilities to begin with? If so, where? Will I owe HMRC, or the Italian Revenue, or both? Should I hire a tax consultant here in the UK or remotely in Italy (I am fluent in Italian) because they would be more knowledgeable about their own Byzantine system?

Thanks.

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I can’t comment on the Italian side of things, but there’s no UK tax payable on receiving an inheritance. (There’s tax paid by the estate on its total value, but that’s out of the UK’s jurisdiction in this case.)

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  • This answer is incredibly useful. You just saved me some £200 the cheapest tax specialist in London would have certainly required to tell me exactly the same thing. I'll hire someone in Italy, then.
    – user94207
    Jan 11, 2021 at 20:41
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    Do note, however, that if the money you receive includes interest, rent or other income generated by the assets and received by the estate after the date of death, that counts as your income and is taxable.
    – Mike Scott
    Jan 12, 2021 at 9:54
  • Oh, FFS! That's remarkably subtle, thanks! Those savings accounts must be earning meagre interest as I type, but as far as I understand it, Italian banks collect a 26% "flat" levy right at the source, on behalf of the Italian Revenue Service. I am a 45%-er here in the UK, which means that I probably have to pay income tax in the UK on that interest (higher wins) and then somehow convince the Italians to grant me a rebate for the 26%, which is much less likely to happen than Colin Firth becoming Prime Minister over there.
    – user94207
    Jan 12, 2021 at 10:09

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